


Bad Day Has No End

by dianemaryallison



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Bad Days, F/M, Holidays, Philinda Secret Santa, Tumblr Prompt, Young Philinda, i'm really bad at this, melinda hates cold, people at the airport screw up, phil loves winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-23
Updated: 2015-12-23
Packaged: 2018-05-08 17:11:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5506079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dianemaryallison/pseuds/dianemaryallison
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Melinda and Phil both have plans for the holidays but a horrible day can change that</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bad Day Has No End

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ddagent](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ddagent/gifts).



> Ddagent the secret is out! I'm your Secret Santa! Sorry for getting this up a bit late. I hope you enjoy this story as much as I enjoyed writing it! Happy Holidays!
> 
> Big thanks to my beta Kainka who's always there for me

 “Oh my god, what do I do? I need to fix it!” Clint sounded horrified.

“Yes, you do. Stop panicking,” Melinda answered calmly. It was the last day of school for Phil and Melinda and they were huddled up for warmth in her dorm room lying in her bed. It wasn’t uncommon for Boston to be covered in snow at this time of year however, the weather changed within a day from acceptably chilly to numbingly freezing. That still wasn’t enough to ruin their mood. They were just enjoying the time off after the last week of semester finals when Clint called them begging for help. His newest girlfriend, Hanna, got an emergency call from the hospital she worked in and was forced to leave Clint alone in her apartment. How foolish that was she couldn’t have known. Clint swore he wasn’t doing anything inappropriate and yet Melinda was now lying on her stomach, watching Clint run around the room and look for a sticky tape or anything else to fix the drawer of the dresser he just broke.

“You do realise that even if you find it, it won’t hold, right?” Melinda asked with an arched brow.

“Do you have a better idea?” he shot back without really looking up.

Melinda remained silent for a minute before she asked still seemingly hard-thinking, “Does she have any pillows?” Clint stopped in his vain attempt of finding the duct tape and looked at her as if he was questioning her marbles. “Or wine glasses?” Melinda continued innocently.

“She does!” Clint’s distrust in her vanished and he lit up.

“Great! Well, neither of those. TRY A HAMMER!” Melinda screamed at the screen which made Barton jump a few feet back.

“Was that really necessary?” he asked grumpily while she tried hard to supress laughter. Phil glanced at his girlfriend over his book with a smile. She could be so evil. He was happy to watch her having fun like this - even happier that it wasn’t at his account for once. The last time he happened to catch her attention when she was in this mood, he ended up with his hair dyed red and blue. Melinda found it hilarious and wanted to add some white, since he was such a patriot, but he somehow managed to prevent that from happening. He wasn't entirely sure how.

“This looks horrible. She’s gonna know.” Clint sighed inspecting his work done with nails and hammer as Melinda suggested. Phil hadn’t even noticed the progress their friend made with the repairs. Clint tugged at the handle, “It won’t even open!”

“It’s easy. You just need two more nails,” Melinda smiled sweetly at him.

There was a deep intake of breath from the other side of the feed, “Okay, where do I put them?” Clint readied himself to follow his friend’s instructions.

“In Hanna’s eyes,” Melinda kept her sweet voice and Phil was sure if looks could kill Melinda’d be a thousand times dead from the look Clint shot her.

“You are _not_ helping!” he emphasised each word but couldn’t wipe Melinda’s grin off. Phil behind her chuckled and immediately tried to cover it as coughing. “How about you stop laughing at my misery and instead tame your girlfriend Coulson?” Clint sounded so bitter yet desperate Phil felt really sorry for the guy. But not _that_ sorry.

“So she can cover me in permanent body paint this time? Or I’d say something that will get her mad and she’ll ditch me for the rest of the holidays. No thanks.” With his luck both options were possible.

Melinda turned just enough to flash him a grin obviously acknowledging only his first suggestion, “That’s not such a bad idea.”

“Don’t you dare!”  Phil exclaimed slightly bewildered. Or horrified for all he could say. He needed to be more careful about giving her ideas to make him miserable.

Before they could take their little fight further, there was an alarmed sound from Clint accompanied by an even more horrified expression on his face. “Guys she’s here! What do I do?” he whispered.

“Hey, just calm down. Tell her what happened and she’ll understand.” Phil took up with the advising where Melinda had left, leaning over Melinda’s shoulder to get a better look at the screen.

“Is that what you’d do?” Clint raised an unimpressed brow and Phil could feel Melinda’s expectant eyes laid on him.

“I…” Phil hesitated, “Hey, you’re the one who screwed up. Not me.”  He earned himself a smack to his shoulder from Melinda. “Good luck, man. Let us know if you’re still alive,” Phil ended the call and sat back, immediately burying his face back in his book.

“Don’t assume you’re getting out of this so easily!” Melinda closed her laptop and swiftly claimed her position in Phil’s lap, effectively pushing his book aside. His now free hands settled on her hips but she wasn’t paying attention to that. “You wouldn’t tell me?” From the tone of her voice he couldn’t be sure if she was teasing him or was actually being serious. _Time to play it safe._

“Which answer is the one that doesn’t get me kicked out of bed tonight?” he earned himself another punch, this time to his chest. “Ouch! Hey, that hurts! Haven’t you heard? You shouldn’t be beating the man who loves you!”

“Yes, but I can punch the one who’s avoiding answering my questions!” She did try really hard to hide the smirk tugging at her lips, but he had learned to read her expressions during the time he spent staring at her from afar, when Melinda May being his girlfriend was only a fantasy, similar to the one about him and Captain America being best friends. He was positive she was just teasing him.

“I wouldn’t tell you _because_ ,” he stopped her before she could say anything or hit him again, “I wouldn’t go through your stuff and so wouldn’t have anything to apologise for.” _Smooth Phil, really smooth,_ he thought proudly, patting himself on the shoulder in his mind.

“Remind me why am I dating you? You’re an idiot sometimes.” Melinda shook her head already moving to get off his lap.

“Because you love me,” Phil answered without hesitation, catching her by her waist and pulling her right back to him. It’s been a little over four months since he broke and told his best friend that he loved her and considering she didn’t break his nose back then, he used every opportunity to remind her about that fact.

“I do.” She smiled than saddened a little, “You do realise I’m flying to Miami for the holiday, right?” she asked and he nodded. “So we won’t be seeing each other—”

“I know. Let the guy dream.” He smiled. There was no need for her to blame herself. He was very well aware of her hatred for cold, snow and practically winter in general.  While Phil loved the long walks through the frozen country when he could admire the art of nature, Melinda would rather lie on the beach as close to the equator as possible, sunbathing. And even if he thought she looked adorable with a woollen hat and scarf, her cheeks pink and her eyes shining from underneath the cap, he knew better than to try making her see the grace of the season. Also saying that would almost definitely mean bodily harm for him because no one called Melinda May adorable. Not even her boyfriend.

And so the next morning Melinda was headed to Miami after her family, and Phil would fly over to his aunt in Canada. He had spent there every Christmas since his father passed away and his mom didn’t want to be alone during the holiday. Phil liked it there, spending time with their whole family. They didn’t have many family sessions during the year considering that all his cousins were in different parts of the country, if not the whole world.

It also reminded him of the time when he was a little kid and they used to rent a cottage for the holiday where his father taught him to ski. Phil would be grumpy every time he didn’t make it through a turn on the slope and landed on his butt covered in snow that got everywhere. His dad would pick him up, brush the snow off and encourage him to try again. And again. And again. By the time they were finished, Phil could come down the hill all by himself without falling and they would head home for hot cocoa. Phil remembered all the stories about Captain and the Howling Commando he listened to while sitting by the fireplace trying to dry his clothes that were soaked because of the countless times he fell in the snow.Those were the reasons for him loving Captain, the stories that influenced him on becoming the man he was now.

Despite all that he wanted to be with his girlfriend at Christmas. Or at least be able to see her during the holiday. However, flying to the other side of the continent meant they'd have to do with phone calls and maybe occasional Skype if they were lucky enough. He sighed, “I’m gonna miss you.”

“I know, I’ll miss you too,” she kissed him lightly.

“I have to start packing if I want to make it to my flight in the morning,” he sighed. He didn’t really want to leave her but the longer he stayed the less sleep he’d get. Which wasn’t really a problem, he’d happily sacrifice a good night sleep for a little more time with Melinda, hadn’t she have to start packing as well. “I’ll see you in three weeks, I guess?”

“Don’t look so crestfallen. It’s not the end of the world.” He was usually the one trying to make her see the world positively but for once she took that part. He hugged her tight pressing another kiss to her neck. She was right, three weeks would pass by like nothing. He’d see her in no time.

-o0o-

Melinda cursed the technology again for failing her. Of course her alarm wouldn’t go off the one morning she really didn’t have any time for squandering. In a hurry she reached for her cooling tea and scrunched her nose at the bitter taste but couldn’t waste one precious minute imprecating herself for leaving the tea bag in her mug for too long. She swallowed the light coloured liquid and threw her mug in the sink. She’d wash it when she’d return, she was already late for the airport. If she missed the plane, she’d never hear the end of it from her mom. Because, to her it didn’t matter that Melinda practically lived on her own for the past four years. According to Lian May Melinda was unpunctual, never to be reached when she was supposed to and all in all irresponsible.

Her cab honked from downstairs and Melinda ran to the door grabbing her coat and suitcase in one go, sprinting down the stairs. In the middle of the stairway she stumbled realising she forgot to put on boots and was still in her ballerinas. Constantly cursing under her breath she rushed back to her room and changed, getting to the taxi in less than a minute. When Melinda finally collapsed in the back seat, she searched her purse for her plane ticket. _Please, please be here!_ she wished silently until she found the paper tucked in one of the side pockets. For the first time that morning she relaxed a little. She was going to make it; there’d be no lectures about immaturity from her mother.

Her joy didn’t last long as she spotted the traffic jam on the highway. This day really couldn’t get any worse. “Can you drive around it?” she asked the cabbie pleadingly. She threw her an inquiring look in the rear mirror. “I really need to make it to the airport in,” Melinda glanced at her watch, “less than twenty five minutes.” The woman nodded and sped up a little.

Another eighteen minutes later Melinda jumped out of the cab and darted towards the check-in desk. The man frowned at the screen when the scanner shone red after reading Melinda’s ticket. Another wave of worry started building in her gut. “Is there a problem?” she asked gloomily. The man frowned again then took a marker and fixed a number on Melinda’s ticket. He scanned it again and this time the computer flashed green. He smiled encouragingly at her, “There’s none.”

Melinda thanked God for people capable of doing their job when she was ridded of her luggage and holding her boarding pass heading towards her gate five minutes later.

Once she was seated in the plane she allowed herself a deep breath. Hopefully she had the worst of this day behind her. All she wanted right now was to lie down on the beach and warm up in the sun a little. Oh how she hated cold. Winter was the worst! She hated how her hair got all wet when it snowed, how freezing water dropped from the trees right behind her collar when she forgot to put on her scarf, the water splash that remained after the snow had melted and that would freeze during the night and make the streets slippery and _life-threatening_! But it wasn’t just the snow that made winter so unbearable for Melinda. Even when her surroundings were dry and without the white disaster people were so thrilled about Melinda would glare outside the window cursing the bone-chilling biting wind that made her wear tons of clothes if she wanted to keep just the little warmth there was, and the gloomy grey sky that tried hard to make you feel as miserable as possible.

Putting on her headphones Melinda laid back and closed her eyes as the stewardess greeted the passengers on board.

-o0o-

Melinda wasn’t sure when she’d fallen asleep as she was jerked awake by a turbulence. Throwing a look out of the window she only saw white fluffy clouds beneath bright blue sky.  She looked around the plane, most people were reading, some chattering, a few eating the plane refreshments. She paused her music and got up to take a bathroom break.

“Melinda?” Before she even reached the middle of the aisle there was a hesitant voice from behind her. One that sounded a lot like Phil. Which was ridiculous of course because Phil should have already landed in Winnipeg two hours ago. She turned around to search for the person calling her and froze when she spotted him. It _was_ Phil. He sat next to the window, a book he called lighter reading that was about eight hundred pages in his lap and his headphones around his neck. He appeared just as startled as her. “What are you doing here?” he asked then grinned, “Did you miss me already?”

She opened her mouth to answer but was still stunned just from the sight of him in front of her and nothing came out. When she finally regained her speech she responded equally with a question, “What are _you_ doing here? Shouldn’t you’ve already landed?”

“Technical problems. They delayed the flight, I was stuck at the airport for almost two and half hours. And then some passengers got lost or something…” he shrugged.

“Yeah, but aren’t you going north?”

“I am? Winnipeg. Which is north. Well, northwest if you want to be precise but… Doesn’t matter, what are you doing here? Honey, is everything okay?”

Like an idiot she kept staring at him. This couldn’t be happening. She got to the airport in time, the ground personnel gave her her ticket and sent her to her gate, _her_ plane. They couldn’t have messed that up. There had to be a mistake, Phil had to get on the wrong plane… She knew that wasn’t the case. He seemed too confident about all what he said; he wouldn’t make up something like this.

She was in the wrong plane.

Another turbulence hit the plane and Melinda wavered and had to catch at the headrest of the nearest seat otherwise she might have fallen. Phil jumped up and gently lowered her in the free spot next to his.

“—call the fly attendant?” She hadn’t realised he was talking to her. What was he saying? She couldn’t think clearly.

“Mom is going to kill me,” she whispered to herself.

“She’ll understand. What happened? How did you even get on a wrong plane?” Phil rubbing her arm while she was leaning on him was calming her but it didn’t make up for the fact that she heading to the middle of freezing nowhere instead of sunny resort where her parents were waiting for her.

 _How could this happen?_ she asked herself. She stopped panicking for a moment and mused. She printed her ticket and it definitely read _Miami_ , that ticket was given to the airport worker who scanned it and gave her her boarding pass. There was no way tha— That man rewrote a number on her ticket when the system couldn’t read it.

“What number is this flight?” Melinda asked and confused Phil even more.

“What?”

“The number of this flight. What is it?” she demanded.

“Ehm… Oh here,” he handed her his ticket. 14121968. Her flight was 14121963. She remembered because it was same as her dad’s birthday.

It was the last digit. It probably got scratched by her keys or something in her bag as she rushed to the airport to catch her flight and the man at the check-in had to read it wrong so when he rewrote the number, he changed Melinda’s flight. Melinda couldn’t believe this cost her her vacation.

When a bad day started it had the potential to only grow worse in Melinda’s case.

 “Hey, look at the bright side, at least we’re together,” Phil beamed at her.

She nodded absentmindedly, “I need to fix this.” Phil’s smile faded and he pulled away slightly. Melinda looked at his dispirited expression. “Phil, I have to get back! Can you imagine when the plane arrives in Miami, my dad’s waiting for me and I’m not there?”

“I know. I just thought… I’d really like it if you’d stay for a few days.” Phil still looked hopeful yet pessimistic at the same time. Damn Melinda for having such hard times resisting his puppy dog eyes.

“I don’t know those people. I know they’re your family but… I’m sure they wouldn’t be overjoyed to spend their holiday with a stranger. Besides, I really don’t want to make any more trouble.”

“Please, you’re no trouble. Stay for one night. These planes don’t fly here daily anyway and your luggage probably isn’t even on board since you came so late.” She wasn’t going to make him see her point and this bickering was pointless. He had to read her mind because he stopped. “Okay, how about when we land we see if your things are there and find you the next flight. And if there’s none or your suitcase’s missing, you come with me and wait until we resolve that? Would that work?”

She knew she wouldn’t get a better deal from him at this point. “Fine,” she sighed. “But I’m not building snowman or getting into a snowball fight or whatever it is you grown up men are doing.” Phil would pretend to get offended but they both knew he was a kid at heart. And there was no way she wouldn’t tease him.

The mood lightened and they settled with Phil’s arm still around her.

-o0o-

“So?” Phil asked as he returned with two cups of hot chocolate.

Melinda threw her phone back to her bag, “She said that if I wanted to be with my boyfriend so much there were easier ways to make that happen.”

“She didn’t believe you?”

Melinda shook her head. Why was he surprised her mom didn’t believe her story about switched planes Melinda didn’t know. There was probably no one who’d believe such thing. “But then I didn’t really think she would have. She said I’m supposed to wait for my things to arrive and arrange a flight when possible.”

“Did you mention how bad the weather was and that they were already cancelling flights?”

“I did. She just said I’m making excuses to stay here longer.”

Phil grinned, “Are you?”

Melinda’s nose scrunched. “It’s cold here.”

“I’ll warm you up.” He kissed her. A moment later the announcement informed the passengers that all the flights were cancelled due to bad weather and that they’d be informed of alternative ways of transportation. “Seems like you’re stuck with me for a while.”

**Author's Note:**

> How about some love? Or like non-hate...


End file.
